In May, the Judge issued a temporary injunction. The plaintiff was Chris Hedges , a journalist who formerly worked for The Times, and several supporters of WikiLeaks.
They argued that the law was too imprecise about the conduct that could lead to someone's detention and exactly who could be detained. They said the statute chilled their First Amendment rights because they feared the government might claim their activities made them supporters of an enemy force and subject to detention.
Judge Forrest agreed. She ruled that the Constitution requires more specificity when "defining an individual's core liberties." She took issue with the use of inexact terms like "substantially supported" and "associated forces."
The government also failed to state unequivocally that no First Amendment-protected activities would subject them to indefinite military detention, the judge said, and this troubled her. As it should have.
The second case heard by Judge Forrest dealt with the 2008 FISA Amendments law that expanded the government's power to conduct surveillance without warrants in the future. According to The Times, it also retroactively rejected the George W. Bush administration's unlawful snooping in broad violation of Americans' constitutionally protected privacy.
Judge Forrest also slammed provisions of the FISA law which, in combination with the National Defense Authorization Act , could result in indefinite detention.
Privacy and civil rights advocates, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have spoken out against the reauthorization act. The ACLU criticized the law for allowing monitoring of "American communications without meaningful judicial oversight and without probable cause or any finding of wrongdoing."
This not the end of the story. The Obama Administration will doubtless appeal these judgments and, given the current jurisprudential environment, may win.
Still, it's heartening to find a judge -- an Obama appointee -- who is willing to take on heavy Constitutional issues and possibly face opprobrium from the half the Congress, half the public, a lot of colleagues on the bench, the Department of Justice, and the White House.
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